How The Disabilities Treaty Senate Debacle Caught the Media’s Attention

Senate rejection of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities was a new low; and a shameful blight on America’s traditional role as a global human rights leader. Senator Kerry, who championed the treaty, has promised to bring it up for a vote once again in the new Congressional term.

The Disabilities Treaty is somewhat obscure; it also would not have changed anything about domestic approaches to persons with disabilities so the mainstream media generally ignored the drama leading up to the vote on December 4. The failure of the treaty, however, certainly caught the media’s attention.

What follows are some highlights of media blasting those who cynically opposed this human rights treaty:

No matter that Democratic Sen. John Kerry patiently and eloquently explained that the treaty would in no way impact U.S. law but merely encourage other countries to adopt our own standards and make life easier for disabled Americans abroad. Or that the treaty — signed by 154 countries and ratified by 126 — was modeled on the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act, a billchampioned by Dole and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. Or that the treaty itself was drawn up by that notorious U.N.-hugger George W. Bush. Or even thateight Republican senators voted to ratify it, including increasingly rabid Obama foreign policy critic John McCain, who listed two dozen supportive veterans organizations before noting that the treaty was about “American leadership in the world.”

But none of that counted, because,according to Rick Santorum and his band of U.N..-bashers, ratification would meanwheeling ourselves, ever so slowly, down the road to serfdom at the feet of “international bureaucrats.” It would outsource American power to Geneva, decimate home schooling and shake the very foundations of society. To say nothing of the forced abortions that, Santorum & Co. suggest, would inevitably result.

What is it about the United Nations that sends the GOP into such a tizzy? That diplomats are encouraged to speak French? The United Nation’s intentions are the best, yet Republicans always assume the worst. They weep for the improbable horrors that could be but shed very few tears for the hardships in the here and now, such those suffered by the 1 billion disabled people worldwide who struggle with patchwork laws and official neglect. As comedian Jon Stewart noted, “Republicans hate the United Nations more than they like helping people in wheelchairs.”

And Wolf Blitzer, CNN, 12/5/12:

“A wheelchair moving slowly to the center of the Senate floor and in that wheelchair an 89 year old war hero, a hero who earned two Purple Hearts, who also earned a Bronze Star and that hero appeals for recognition of atreaty. It’s a treaty that bans discrimination against people with disabilities. Just sounds like a no-brainer right?”